1. reaching a point of no return, an irreversible decision; from the practice of "breaking the glass of a
fire alarm" in which you must first break a thin layer of glass before pulling a fire alarm to discourage unnecessary activation of fire alarms
2. In Healthcare Information Management Systems (
HIMS), the practice of opening a confidential record, file, etc.; often when this is done your information (name, IP, email, organization) is recorded on an accounting of
disclosure form
1.
The doctor's decision to telephone
the patient's mother about his threatening comments broke the glass with the patient, there was no going back.
2. The medical records department had to break the glass to obtain information about
the celebrity's medical record, as it had been marked strictly confidential to prevent unwarranted leaks of information.